🦋 No me canso de ser y de no ser
Listening to the Colombian band Musicalizando sing Neruda's poem "Plenos Poderes" is, well, fun. I'm not quite connecting with the music -- it doesn't really move me -- but the poem is just lovely and I'm glad to be able to hear it recited rather than just reading it on the page and trying to figure out the cadences for myself. And also, it's just a nice feeling to see pop musicians rooted in the literary tradition like that. I wonder (with reference to El Laberinto de la Soledad) if this is more common in Latin America than it is here. The lines Y no me canso de ir y de volver;
no me para la muerte con su piedra,
no me canso de ser y de no ser.
seem like a disavowal of his earlier Sucede que me canso de ser hombre. (from "Walking Around"). I suppose without knowing, this might be connected to the political situations of the times when he wrote these two poems. The lines from "Plenos Poderes" work nicely as a response to Hamlet's question.More Neruda-based pop music below the fold.
 Further evidence, perhaps, of a strong link between poetry and music in South America? In comments to the post below, Jorge recommends Los Alturos de Macchu Picchu, an album by Chilean band Los Jaivas with lyrics taken from Neruda's Canto General.
posted evening of Monday, January 12th, 2009
➳ More posts about Pablo Neruda
➳ More posts about Readings
➳ More posts about Music
Even further evidence comes from the fact that the man introducing Los Jaivas in the video is no other than Mario Vargas Llosa, Perú's eternal candidate to the Literature Nobel prize.
posted evening of January 13th, 2009 by Jorge López
Oh, cool! I was wondering who that was...
posted evening of January 13th, 2009 by Jeremy
Can you provide or point me to an english translation of the Neruda poem "Sucede que me canso de ser hombre." Thanks, Jamie F.
posted morning of April third, 2009 by Jamie F.
Dude, do I look like a library?
posted morning of April third, 2009 by Jeremy
Sorry; that was unnecessarily hostile. But the best place to look (if you're in the US) is in a library; there are tons of translated editions of Neruda's poetry. If you don't have a library handy, Google is a useful tool.
posted morning of April third, 2009 by Jeremy
|
Judith Flanders 